Fil-Am Invt’l proof of golf’s pulling power

By Al S. Mendoza

BAGUIO CITY–Golf is laid back? Boring?

It is laid back, yes, but not really boring.

Still, for all its laid back looks, golf is actually tension-filled, pressure packed and full of thrills.

For one, how can it be boring when you have 14 clubs to choose from before you make a shot?

For another, how can it be boring when there are no two courses that are alike?

Each shot in golf needs a lot of thinking.

Like chess, golf is mainly a mind game.

Both games won’t stop you from wracking your brain while playing them.

As in the truism that there are virtually no identical times from two time pieces, there are also no two similar shots in golf. One stroke is always different from the other.

A Jordan lay-up is no different from a Bryant lay-up.

A Shaq dunk shot is no different from a Yao Ming dunk shot.

The notion that golf is laidback is a myth.

Maybe, it is laid back from the standpoint that optimum silence is the game’s main requirement.

Like chess, even a whisper is taboo among spectators when a golf game is on.

When a stroke is about to be made in golf, you are not only supposed to keep your mouth shut, you are also supposed to stay still. Like a monument.

In basketball, you scream, applaud wildly and whistle in joy when a trey swishes a net.

Not in golf.

Just a mild applause will do to honor a good shot in golf.

You keep hollering and yelling and even heckling when watching a boxing duel.

Not in golf.

The sound of a pin falling is heard when a golf shot is about to be made.

Seconds before a golf shot is made, the world stops. Birds won’t chirp. Wind halts the rustling of leaves. Even breathing is practically banned.

Boring?

Uh-oh! There is but one motion in a basketball lay-up.

In golf, there are about 50 muscles moving in a single blast from the sand trap.

There is but one motion in a basketball free throw.

In golf, there are about 75 muscles moving in chip shop.

In golf, there are about 100 muscles moving for a full swing from the tee box.

Boring?

Uh-oh. Listen to Anthony de Leon, the dapper GM of the Baguio Country Club: “There are more than one thousand Filipinos and foreigners playing right now in the 59th Fil-Am Golf Invitational. With global meltdown and all, how can golf be boring, disposed of like an old rag? Their presence is proof of the pulling power of golf.”

If golf is boring, golfers from around the globe-from New Zealand to Canada, and from the U.S. to Japan-won’t be coming here yearly to play in the Fil-Am, the fabled event entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the most attended golf tournament in the world.

Boring?

If it’s boring, I won’t be here from Nov. 18 up to Dec. 6 as rules man of the Fil-Am, together with Jake P. Ayson.

Only those who don’t play golf would probably insist golf is boring.

Play the game and, happily, you will realize it’s not.

As in the saying, the taste of the pudding is in the eating, it also goes without saying that the true “taste” of golfing is in the playing.

(Readers may reach columnist at alsol47@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/general-admission/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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